


Shine for You.

by Star_Trashinum



Category: Love Live! School Idol Project, Love Live! Sunshine!!
Genre: F/F, GanbaShiny, Romance, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-19
Updated: 2017-09-18
Packaged: 2018-12-31 11:34:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,075
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12131568
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Star_Trashinum/pseuds/Star_Trashinum
Summary: Childhood friends, a puppy crush, blossoming into love.





	Shine for You.

**Author's Note:**

> Notes - This will be my first multichap fic that’s more than just 2 chapter, and will also be about my own personal favourite rare pair.
> 
> I hope you enjoy it; comments and feedback would be wonderful!
> 
> (Italics indicate Mari’s English, and bold indicates texting)

_ Te o nobase! Sore kara nayame! _

_ Te o nobase! Sore kara nayame! _

 

         Mari flops down on the floor, much too exhausted for a spoiled rich girl after a particularly grueling Aqours practice. “ _ Very exhausted!!!~”  _ Mari screams, before rolling over to press her face to the concrete, hoping that the lack of sun in her eyes will help her cool by some magical feat. She feels a small tap on her shoulder, which she verifies is not a spider by the fact that she only feels it for that fraction of a second. Rolling back over, she looks to see a pair of big green eyes staring at her, which could have been one of two people. The bright red pigtails and the fact that she was closer to the ground gave it away, though.

 

         “U-Umm… Mari-oneechan… could I ask for something?” Ruby asks, recoiling the hand that poked Mari’s back as she turned over to face her, “I-I need your help with school.”

 

         “Why, of course, dear little Ruby!~” Mari exuberantly replies, sitting right back up, “what seems to be ailing you,  _ little child _ ; does someone need to be taken care of?” Mari’s question was more comedic than serious, but knowing her status and what she had power over, it was scary to think about the things she actually could do.

 

         “W-Wha-- N-no no; no one needs to be taken care of!!” Ruby explains, wondering in her head what the whole ‘taken care of’ thing meant, “I meant t-that I needed help studying; everyone is really busy, but Ruby knows that you speak English, a-and she wanted to ask… if you could help her with homework…” Mari blinks astoundedly for a second; sure, she was chairwoman, but… school tended to be a ‘do it last minute to barely pass’ sort of thing. Oh well, Ruby was quite cute about it, and it was true that she was at least passingly familiar with English to lend a hand.

 

         “Why of course, my dear Ruby; mama Mari’s always here to help!” Mari happily tells her as she pulls out her phone, pulling up a calendar, “Hmmm… I should be alright at any time on days we don’t have practice, chairwoman things can always be adjusted; just text me when you’re free!”

 

         “O-Ok Mari-oneechan… thank you.”

 

\---

 

Ganbaruby - 

\- hey mariiii

\- im free tomorrow do you want to meet somewhere; i need help with understanding my homework for an upcoming test

 

Shiiiny - 

\- of course!!!

\- Do you want to meet up at one of the cafes near the hotel? The whole thing will be on me; i just wanna help you study \owo/

 

Ganbaruby - 

\- O ok thank u so much

\- ill see u then!!

 

\---

 

         Getting off the bus, Ruby quickly makes her way to the massive seaside hotel, still not used to the sheer size of it and how her friend just… casually lived in it… because she owned it. Making her way through the massive and heavy glass doors, she surveys around the foyer, before finding an elegantly designed sign above a door, reading ‘Cafe -  _ Cazzo di Caffetteria _ ’. The cafe’s decor is quite rustic and simple, but its elegance speaks volumes; polished and meticulously built wooden furniture dots the floor of the cafe. Low hanging lamps with yellowed bulbs cast the most beautiful of shadows on the brick-walled room, giving off an extremely home-y look. State of the art espresso machines, French presses and hand-cranked grinders make up the front station, along with an array of shelves filled with coffee beans, cutlery and anything you’d ever need and more for a cafe. A curved glass display case houses an assortment of small cakes and cookies, along with sandwiches for people looking for a small snack. The dimly lit and warm tones of the room, along with the menagerie of hotel guests gives an extremely fancy vibe, and Ruby is almost too intimidated to enter before a familiar, shrill voice calls to her.

 

         “ _Oh, I’m here, Ruby!!~_ ” Mari calls out, waving incessantly as she distracts some of the customers near her, “Now let’s get started on your work, and let good ol’ Mari here help you with your work!” Ruby walks over towards Mari’s table, setting her bag down beside her chair as she sits down onto the chair; wooden and heavy, contrasted with a lovely plush seat cover. The heavy cardstock menu is overflowing with menu items, a literal half of the menu dedicated to just different ways to take your coffee. The items have their English names written in beautiful painstakingly drawn calligraphy, and Ruby can barely make out the word ‘Coffee’ before giving up to read the Japanese titles given on the menus. “See anything you like, Ruby-chan?” Mari kindly asks, gesturing to the menu that Ruby is meticulously scanning through, “since this cafe is part of the hotel, you can order whatever you’d like on the menu, _in the house!~_ ”

 

         “M-Mari-oneechan… isn’t the saying ‘on the house’?” Ruby responds, confused now by both the large assortment of coffees and Mari’s english, “a-and i have my choice, s-so we can order now.” Mari looks into mind, realizing that, yes, the term ‘in the house’ is very incorrect; blushing at the embarrassment of messing up the language she was about to teach Ruby. Mari waves over to a barista that’s currently polishing one of the coffee cups, and clears her throat as the barista pulls out a pen and notepad from her apron. 

 

         “What can I get you two today?”

 

         “Y-yes, can I get a dark roast with three sugars and two shots of espresso and a lemon tart,” Mari responds, giving the barista her usual order; tailored perfectly to the eccentric, energetic blonde, “and what will you have, Ruby?”

 

         “Oh… um… right… c-can Ruby have a warm milk tea… green tea please… and a s-strawberry shortcake,” Ruby calls out, making sure to check over her order multiple times, before nodding to give the barista the OK. The barista finishes jotting down the order before heading back to their station, starting up their order. Wanting to get down to buisness, Ruby reaches down to her bag, pulling out her English textbook, along with a pastel pink notebook, covered in little doodles of flowers along the front page. “S-So, the test I have upcoming is about verbs and adjectives, and I have a bunch of practice problems, s-so Mari-oneechan can help with those…” Ruby explains, opening her textbook up to a set of problems, “will that be OK with you?”

 

         Mari looks at Ruby’s book; sure, she knew what all the words meant… sorta… but putting them together into well-crafted, organized sentences? That wasn’t  _ Shiny _ enough. To be  _ shiny  _ was to express yourself in how  _ shiny _ you were, not some grammatically correct nonsense that wouldn’t dare to capture the  _ shininess  _ of it all. She would manage, though; helping little Ruby would have to come first.

  
  


"Of course!! You know, I'm  _ very good at English, if you could tell _ ," Mari reminds her, flashing up her trademark 'OK!!~' symbol with her hand, "let's get one of these questions done so I know what we're working with, no?" Ruby nods in agreement, flipping through the textbook to a pre-bookmarked page, preparing herself by taking out a silver-colored mechanical pen.   
  
"Y-Yeah, that sounds good… O-OK, here’s a good one to start with,” Ruby begins, hovering the pencil towards the instructions, then to the first sample sentence, “add an adjective that best fits the sentence; ‘The kitten is very ___.’” Ruby looks towards a box of sample words on the bottom of that page, trying to think of the word that would best fit a small animal. “Do you think ‘cute’ would describe a kitten, Mari-oneechan?” Ruby asks, cocking her head to the side.

 

“I think the kitten would be  _ shiny! _ ” Mari answers, feeling confident in her words before looking towards a very confused Ruby, “Think about it; both you and the kitten are small and adorable, and Ruby is very  _ shiny _ , therefore; ‘The kitten is very  _ shiny _ .” Mari puts on a high and triumphant face, closing her eyes to appreciate how concrete her reasoning was for the kitten to be  _ shiny _ . The self-appreciation goes away quickly as she looks to her pupil, who is bright red and almost shaking in embarrassment. Mari leans in to look at the embarrassed mess in front of her, realizing that she had just accidentally hit on one of her childhood friends, more specifically, the little sister of her very protective childhood friend. “Y-You alright, Ruby?” Mari sheepishly questions, trying to gauge how she should handle the immense awkwardness sitting right in front of her, “sorry that I just said that all  _ willy-nilly _ , did I frighten ya?”

 

“Y-Yeah... I'm all good, y-you just caught me off guard, t-that’s all…” Ruby tells Mari, fidgeting, as if to say something,  “It’s just... all the words come from a word bank… and the word shiny isn't in there, Mari-oneechan.” The two sit in a state of deafening silence, not able to form any coherent words until the barista comes with a large platter with their orders.

 

“An order for Miss Ohara and her friend,” the waitress announces, before setting the dishes on the table for the two girls, “if you need anything, don’t hesitate to ask, Miss Ohara.” Mari gives the barista a nod, before giving her a wave of thanks; she would be sure to ask later to take the dishes away, if she could remember what her name was. There were a lot of staff members at the hotel, and brown, short hair was all too common. She purses her lips, only coming to the conclusion that her named started in an S.

 

Ruby clasped her hands together, eyes shining in delight as she looked at her order, “Wow Mari, this all looks so exquisite; it looks almost too good to eat!” She gives a silent nod of thanks before taking her fork to the cake, parting both the spongy cake and the decadent filling to make a small piece for herself. Stabbing the shortcake, Ruby’s eyes light up at she takes her first bite, a mumbled squee of approval as she chews and takes in the flavour of the treat. “-chew chew- It’s so sweet and fluffy Mari, you should give it a try!” Ruby exclaims, cutting off another small piece of her cake, as she extends her arm to hand her a piece of her dessert. Truth be told, Mari had tested every single item on this menu, but Ruby's request was so cute that she couldn’t resist. Momentarily blushing, Mari leans over as she takes the small piece off the fork with her lips, remembering full well how delicious that particular cake was. 

 

“Fluffy and cute, and particularly sweet too, just perfect for Ruby,” Mari thinks, finishing up the small bite, before realizing exactly what she had thought, “wait what am I thinking she’s like a sister-- oh god I used her fork for that Dia will kill me.” Mari momentarily panicked, hoping that Ruby wouldn’t notice the indirect lip contact as the girl took another bite out of her cake. Taking a sip from her dangerously caffeinated beverage, Mari watches as Ruby cutely furrows her brow in concentration. She looks back and forth between her notes and the book, before letting out a small huff.

 

“Is everything alright,  _ little Ruby _ ?” Mari worriedly asks, concerned by Ruby’s somewhat upset face.

 

“Y-Yeah… just confused on how you would use some of these words,” Ruby admits, writing a sentence out, before erasing it shortly after, “M-Mari-oneechan, could you help Ruby out here?”

  
Ruby actually really trusted in her to teach her, huh?   
  


If it was one of the members of her subunit, they would've already known the pretense that working Mari brought; but Ruby really depended on her, probably because of how long they've know each other.   
  


That was it, right?   
  
Mari gives a small chuckle,as she stand up out of her chair, causing Ruby to look suddenly up from her book as she sees Mari turn around to pick up her chair. With a newfound, confident stride, she walks the wooden chair and places it beside Ruby, before sitting back down. "Sorry for joking around earlier, little Ruby, this time good ol' Mari-oneechan is gonna really help with your homework, ok?" Mari announced, watching Ruby give a smile in response, "Good; let's get to it, shall we?"


End file.
